Flight With a View
by Zion Angel
Summary: T/P, set during Iron Man 2, minor spoilers. -- He doesn’t think twice when he sees her in danger - just swoops in and takes her as high into the sky as he can, mere seconds before the explosion goes off beneath them.


Flight With a View

By ZionAngel

---

It's rare for things not to register in the heat of battle. Even when he hasn't slept in days, every weapon, every person, every potential threat he can see all file themselves away in his brain, factor themselves into the equations flying through his mind at the light speed, so that he can act with maximum effect and minimal danger.

But this night, when he sees Pepper, when the suit's sensors and his own experience tell him what's about to happen, everything else - the police, the bomb squad, the TV news crews being kept at a safe distance, the danger they're all still in - falls away. In that moment, the only thing he can see is Peppper, and the only thing running through his mind is _Save her_.

He swoops down with barely a conscious thought, racing as fast as he can when he lifts her up in one smooth motion. He barely hears her startled scream over the sound of the explosion, just seconds after he flies with her into the air. He keeps going, flying higher than he needs to in order to be safe, until they're high above the city, where he knows he's in complete control. Where he knows he can keep her safe from the danger still raging far below them.

He adjusts for her weight as she shifts frantically, wrapping her arms around his neck as tightly as she can. As he holds her, he feels his mind slowly starting to focus normally again, the way it's supposed to.

"Are you okay?" he asks. He tries to pull back to see he, but her face is buried in the crook of his neck. He thinks she might be shaking, but he can't quite tell. After several seconds without a response, he lifts the faceplate and asks again, hoping his gentler, human voice will calm her.

"Oh, God take me down!" she whispers fiercely.

"Pepper, are you hurt?" He needs to know - needs to be sure that she wasn't hurt by the explosion or any of what came before it. It's his first and only concern at the moment. "Answer me, Pepper."

"I'm fine, now put me down!"

"It's okay, Pepper," he soothes, rubbing her back a little more. It calms him considerably to know that she's unharmed - physically, at least. "We're safe up here. Let's just wait it out for a few minutes."

"Tony, put me _down_!" It's been a long time since he heard such panic in her voice. "We're too high, we're gonna fall!"

"I won't drop you Pepper, it's okay."

In a fleeting moment of courage, she peeks just a little, looking toward the city below. She regrets the move almost instantly, and wraps herself around him even tighter. "Oh, God, Tony please -"

But he doesn't want to put her down yet. No, that's not it - he _can't_ put her down yet. He came too close to losing her down there, and not for the first time, either. The familiar and sickening guilt starts to creep in a little, and he needs to keep her up here where he can keep her safe, just a little bit longer. It's good to be with her, to hold her close - he's hardly seen her in the last few weeks since relinquishing the role of CEO over to her. And the thought that he could have lost her at this point, without one last memory with her, without the chance to see her smile and hear her laugh and -

Just a few minutes up here. Just a few more minutes and he'll be okay.

He sees her hair blowing in the gentle breeze, illuminated by the city lights shining through it. He faintly registers what he hears on the police channel, that the situation below is now under control.

"Tony, _please_ -"

"_Pepper_," he says firmly, lifting up her chin and forcing her to look at him. "I _will not_ let you fall. You're safe with me." There's still fear in her eyes, but at least they're open, and looking at him. His face shifts into a tender, quirky little smile. "Don't you trust me?"

Despite everything, she does nod, just a little. She glances cautiously at the horizon, not looking straight down just yet.

"That's it," he soothes, finally taking stock of the view himself. "You're okay up here, Pep. The cops have everything under control. Let's just wait up here for a few minutes and enjoy the view, yeah?"

His attempt at distraction actually seems to work. The suit's sensors tell him that her heart rate is dropping. He watches her face closely, as the panic and fear drain away and are replaced by calm, and soon, something he thinks might be awe. He sighs quietly, savoring the vision in front of him and committing it to memory. It's just one of the many sacrifices of promoting her - he so rarely gets to see this beautiful, serene face anymore.

"It's beautiful," she finally says, barely a whisper.

It takes a second to understand her meaning, and a few more to pull his eyes away from her face and take in the tiny, multi-colored pattern of lights from the city below.

"I always wished I could fly," she murmurs, as if to herself. "I always wondered what it would be like to come up and see views like this." She seems to remember that he's there, and smiles at him. "You must just love this, I bet, coming up here and seeing so many beautiful things…"

He blinks, and looks around. He sees… lights. Lights and a few clouds, and the occasional star that hasn't been drowned out by the city lights. "I… no, no t really. I don't know, I guess… I never really see it that way. I'm always either preparing myself mentally for my mission, or exhausted when I'm coming back." He looks out again now, trying to see it the way that she does, as something to value for no other reason than the intrinsic beauty of it, something to be appreciated, something more than just the potential site of a battle. "Don't think I've really had the chance to enjoy it." She's right, though - It is beautiful, when you really stop to look.

Pepper sighs, shaking her head. She seems truly at ease now, too overwhelmed by the beauty of what she sees to care about the danger she was in just moments before. It's a level of total relaxation he almost never sees in her. She's almost a different person like this, and it's a truly incredible thing to see.

"I think I'd be up here, looking at views like this every night if I could fly like you. You really should take the opportunity to just enjoy it more. I think it would do you good."

"You like it up here, huh?"

"It's _amazing_."

"Bet you can't do this with Coulson, can you?" he prods gently.

She shoots him an annoyed look, but can't help but smile a little, too. "You didn't have to do that, you know. I wasn't even very close to the explosion, I would have been fine."

A pang of guilt and fear hits him again, but he does his best to fight it away. "Well, you know, can't be too careful. Company can't afford to lose the best CEO it's had in twenty years, now can it?"

She smiles, like she's willing to accept that answer and his protectiveness, and just lays her head against his chest plate, just above the arc reactor, and keeps on looking.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever," he says quietly, surprising himself a little with the quiet admission.

"You saw me on Tuesday."

"Yeah, for like ten minutes. I used to see you practically all day. I don't like it."

She lifts her head enough to lock eyes with him, and she seems genuinely surprised. "Do you miss me?"

"I - no, I mean… That new girl you hired for me is great, she's fine, it's just… Yeah, I miss you." He turns away, too embarrassed to look her in the eye.

But she smiles, and he thinks that might be a faint blush on her cheeks. "I've been missing you, too."

He's honestly surprised to hear that. Really, he was a pretty shitty boss, and he knows he probably made her job a never-ending nightmare. But despite it all, they were - _are_ friends, and he forgets that sometimes. He smiles, and they fall into silence again. He has a hard time deciding whether to look at the beautiful woman in his arms, or the beautiful city below. His gaze shifts back and forth between the two - though it lingers on her just a bit more.

Soon, though, he notices that she's shivering faintly, and a moment later, Jarvis chirps in his ear that it's very cold up here, and probably not safe for Pepper to stay up much longer.

"You're shivering," he murmurs, bringing her out of her slight trance gently. "We should head back down now."

She looks at him almost pleadingly, sadly, not at all the way she had a few minutes ago when the suggestion was hers. "I don't want to go down… I love it up here."

He just smiles. "I guess I'll just have to take you up again sometime."

She smiles tenderly, but her face soon turns hesitant. She bites her lip as if she's debating herself. Then she shifts up, tilts her head, and kisses him. It's awkward - most of his chin is hidden behind the faceplate, and she only manages to kiss his upper lip, and she has her head tilted at a sharp angle to fit under the raised faceplate.

But he doesn't care one whit, and does his best to kiss her back. His mind blanks out completely this time, even moreso than when she was in danger, and for all that he cares there is absolutely nothing else in the world but the two of them, the soft feel of her lips, and her quiet sigh.

Too soon - far, far too soon - she pulls away, leaving his lips almost aching to feel hers again. "I'd like that," she whispers. He blinks at her, trying to decide if that really just happened. But all she does is smile, then close her eyes and tightens her arms around him again. "All right. Let's head back down."

It takes several long seconds to process the words, but finally he lowers the face plate, and begins the slow descent. He's smiling like the fool in love that he is the whole way down.


End file.
